Because youngsters delight in reading about characters with the same first names as their own, this guide is a great way to motivate them to read! It helps users locate books by character names. The approximately 2,000 entries have publication information, type of book (fiction, picture book, biography), number of pages, and a brief annotation. The books listed are found in most children's library collections, and many are award winners (e.g., Boston Globe-Horn Book, Jane Addams, Coretta Scott King, Caldecott, Newbery, state readers' choices) or are listed in Children's Catalog or Elementary School Library Collection.

In the entries of this booklet, the members of each homophonic set are listed in alphabetical order. Each set is entered only once, at its alphabetically first member. There is no cross-reference unless the initial letters of the members differ. For example, the pair "knot, not" is listed under "knot".
Homophones are words of the same language that are pronounced alike even if they differ in spelling, meaning, or origin, such as "pair" and "pear". Homophones may also be spelled alike, as in "bear" (the animal) and "bear" (to carry). But this list consists only of homophones that are not spelled alike.